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Context

I work in a company in Germany and I'm fairly new to my colleagues. Recently our team got a new boss. During a task that my boss performed he pointed out the the outcome was not to his pleasure and so I volunteered and fixed it.

The next day my boss messaged me a simple 'Thank you for fixing problem x'.

Question

Should I answer with a you're welcome? Or do I not because the message would normally not require an answer? Would it be rude to not send a message back?

Imus
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Webster
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    Hi Webster! Welcome on IPS. Unfortunately, *"should I"* questions aren't a good fit on this stack. Would you mind edit your question to make it on-topic? For instance, maybe "what to answer when someone thanks you?" would be a better fit. I'll let you handle it :) – avazula May 25 '18 at 08:08

2 Answers2

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Since you volunteered and were apointed to fix it, it became your job to do so. Your boss sent you that message to show appreciation for you volunteering to fix this situation. You're in no way "obligated" to respond to that message.

Sebastian Proske has a good point that your boss probably already receives too many mails so he can miss any "chatty" mails to further clutter up his big pile.

On the other hand you don't really do anything wrong with replying with a thank you. Just like if he had told you in person you would've replied with some form of thanks anyway.

I personally wouldn't reply with "empty" mails like this though.

Imus
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It is perfectly normal to let the email chain end at this point, you don't need to answer, this would only push another mail into your bosses likely already overruning mailbox without any content.

You might want to answer, if him verifying your fix needs a follow up action from your side, e.g. closing a ticket attached to the issue. I would then focus the email on that action, but a short you're welcome certainly doesn't hurt.

Sebastian Proske
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